F is for Fontanini - Part 6 - Odds and Ends

There is an A-Z entry in the pipeline, but the listing of the figures is proving a nightmare, so while I was hoping to publish it with this post, I'll be working on it over the weekend and maybe get it out Monday sometime.

In the meantime; a few lose-ends which didn't fit into the other posts or which I only thought of later . . .

A few marks which missed the boat in Part 1, labeled collage so self-explanatory, I defy anyone to argue the spidery'ness of the three - quite different - logos! Note also how the numbering of the Rococo figures is more than a hundred-count apart?

Cleaning - The pirate was quite filthy when I got him, and while I thought about a quick dry-brushing, in the end I got the ear-buds out and did a proper job. Here you can see how one corner of the base and plinth came up.

In the course of which a lot of Fontanini's ageing wash came off, I didn't mind, as while it 'adds' to the two Rococo figures, if anything; it subtracted from the Pirate, who came up much brighter for losing what was in effect a water-soluble layer of yacht-varnish brown!

He also had a furry base, which I cleaned with postal-labels as they are gentler that parcel tape! Work out from the centre and always at a slight angle from square so you don't pick-up an edge and lift the whole flocked patch.

You can still get flocked material, but it's backed on modern vehicle/shop-sign vinyl, whereas Fontanini/Carrara used flocked paper labels which I'm not sure where you'd get now.

You can also use costumiers felt cut into suitable rectangles, or even crafters self-adhesive felt, but trying to get them cut and glued square to the piece is hard work and it's a much thicker material - useful for chessmen and the like as you just cut a larger piece and trim-back to the edge, but these need to have a very thin layer of flocking and for it to be cut back from the edge a mm or so.

Sublime detail/sculpting given that the material is a dense PVC.

Bit of fun - I had to go to Farnborough today (Thursday) to get a part for my Vape (three years; no fags!) and popped into the old (independent) party shop to see if they had anything new, and while I balked at two quid for these chrome-finished, placky-tacky 'Sexiest Costume' awards, I thought they were suitably statuesque to 'shelfie' for this post - remember also the Hong Kong Grecian lady in white styrene we looked at a few weeks ago.

 

Growing-family portrait!